Or how I do it anyway…
I make beads using an ancient technique called lampworking.
In preparation I dip steel rods, called mandrels, into bead release, a clay like substance that prevents molten glass adhering permanently to the steel, pull them out and leave them to dry overnight to a powdery finish. Pictured below are lots of prepared mandrels ready to go, note how precariously they are balanced and how close they are to our newly magnolia-ed wall!
Mandrels dipped and ready for action!
Lampworking requires a flame hot enough to melt a rod of glass, I use a special glass working torch that uses propane and oxygen to create the flame but in olden times an oil burning lamp was used, thus it was called lampworking. The torch I use depends on which beads I plan to make, currently I use A GTT Phantom, a Nortel minor burner and a Carlisle mini cc, they each have different flame qualities that make them appropriate for different applications. For oxygen I use a OGSI OG20 generator which is adequate for each of the three torches but if I am going to rage the Phantom I use the generator to power the Lynx inner flame and tanked oxygen for the outer flame (although raging the Phantom doesn’t happen very often as I work in a 8′ x 6′wooden shed/studio and it would be unwise)
The picture below shows the center fire only so you can imagine she’s a bit of a flame thrower. Please note the state of my bench, I like to think of it as a creative mess!
My lovely GTT Phantom Torch
There are two types of glass for flamework, soda lime and borosilicate, they are not compatible and cannot be melted together. I am not going to go into the differences here but borosilicate is a hard glass, it has a higher melting temperature and a different COE (co-effiecent of expansion) to soft glass. Pyrex is borosilicate and is used for scientific glass applications amongst other things.
I use mostly soda-lime or soft glass rods which come from all over the world: from Effetre on the island of Murano in Venice, CIM glass from USA/China, Bullseye from USA, Lauscha from Germany, Plowden and Thomson from here in the UK and the devine Double Helix silver infused glass from the USA.
Pictured below is a stocking order of Bullseye glass rods, so pretty…
Sigh, aren't they lovely
The glass rods can be anywhere from 2mm to 15mm in diameter. Care needs to be taken when introducing them to a hot flame for exactly the same reason you wouldn’t put a drinking glass on top of your gas burner on your cooker, flying hot glass is something of a occupational hazard! The tip of the glass is introduced to the flame and rotated to evenly heat it until a ball or gather of molten glass forms, simultaneously the coated part of a mandrel is warmed in the flame. The tip of the molten rod is touched to the warm mandrel which is rotated to carry the glass around the mandrel. By holding the glass of rod in the flame and the mandrel underneath more glass can be melted onto the rotating mandrel until a large enough bead has been formed. The glass rod is pulled back though the flame and burned off leaving behind the bead on the mandrel which can then be decorated.
When my beads are decorated I let the heat even out and the glass firm up by rotating them out of the heat and then I put them into a waiting hot kiln to anneal before controlled slow cooling. Once cool they can be removed from the mandrel and any remaining bead release cleaned out from the mandrel hole using a diamond coated drill bit.
COMING SOON…..Annealing
